To Serve or Be Served

January 26, 2009 

Today @ This is the way...

Dear readers, 

There is a huge contrast between how man rules and how God rules.

Clyde and Dee Kilough

To Serve or Be Served

Many men lust for power and control. When they attain it, however, they seek after more still. There is truth in the saying that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This has become evident over and over again in the lives of despots.

The terribly sad part is that, although the lust for power seems to be insatiable, it is all too often equaled by the inability of those wielding it to use it wisely and for the benefit of all.

The world teaches that the more one exerts control and influence, the better he rules. God’s way teaches just the opposite—that our greatness is proportional to our service to others (Matthew 23:11), not the service of others to us.

It is not man’s inclination to do things God’s way, but His is the only one that works. Love and service are qualities far more essential to our lives than the world’s version of power—qualities we need to start practicing.

Further Reading:

Learning Leadership Through Service

The greatest among you will be your servant.  Matthew 23:11

Best Wishes

Happy Blessed Chinese New Year!

Wishing you & your family a great start to the New Year!

*Do Not Look Back / Pu Yao Hui Tou Kan*

alldabest ! GOD BLESS !! ORA Et. Labora !

What Are Your Hands Saying?

January 23, 2009 

Today @ This is the way...

Hello readers, Life is easier with our fists unclenched.

Clyde and Dee Kilough

What Are Your Hands Saying?

A unique part of the human body is the hand. With the hand we can reach out to help, we can express an emotion, we can greet people and we can give and take things. Indira Gandhi was quoted as saying, “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”

Her observation describes the difficulty that people and nations have in solving problems when anger, hatred or the desires to hurt and fight are present. A clenched fist is for fighting. The one who has this stance is not ready to negotiate and talk–they are ready to fight.

A woman of great value is one who uses her hands wisely. Proverbs 31:19-20 tells of hands that work well and are ready to help the needy. Hands that express friendship and respect say as much as a hundred words ever could.

Further Reading:

Personal Growth: Extending the Right Hand of Fellowship  

In her hand she holds the distaff 
       and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

She opens her arms to the poor 
       and extends her hands to the needy.

Proverbs 31:19-20

Faster Than a Speeding Rumor

January 21, 2009
Today @ This is the way...

Dear readers,
It’s much safer to walk in the light of truth.

Clyde and Dee Kilough

Faster Than a Speeding Rumor

Washington, D.C., is said to be the only city in the world where sound travels faster than the speed of light. Rumors and gossip have a speed all of their own—the especially destructive ones reaching speeds that boggle belief. Good rumors, on the other hand, take longer to travel from one place to the other.

Humans seem to yearn for gossip, even if they know that what they hear is untrue. No good comes from passing on rumor or gossip (though evil certainly can, as we read in Ecclesiastes 10:20). It is better to bring things into the light of truth than to conceal them in the darkness of rumor.

Further Reading:
My Name Is Gossip

Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, 

       or curse the rich in your bedroom, 
       because a bird in the sky may carry your words, 
       and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

Ecclesiastes 10:20

Enemy Number One

January 19, 2009 

Today @ This is the way...

Dear friends,

You can be a better you—we all can.

Clyde and Dee Kilough

Enemy Number One

Once we reach adulthood and are able to make decisions on our own, we have a responsibility to search out hindrances to a happy life that may lie in our way. Enemy number one (for almost everyone) stares back at us from an unlikely hiding place—the mirror.

We choose what to do and where to be. We choose to remain in sorrow and self-pity or search for an escape. The first place to look for the source of any woes we may have is within ourselves.

Paul encouraged people to examine and test themselves (2 Corinthians 13:5). This is easier said than done. None of us wants to find the warts and bumps we carry, so they go ignored and untreated.

It is easier to blame other people, circumstances or things for our woes. That never brings a solution—it is like discarding the mirror.

Rather than do that, our first response should be to take a good, long, honest look in that mirror and be willing to change the flaws we see—otherwise, our enemy wins.

Further Reading:

What's Wrong With Our Human Nature?

All Things in Moderation

January 16, 2009
Today @ This is the way...

Dear readers,
Let us not forget the value of temperance.

Clyde and Dee Kilough

All Things in Moderation

Obesity is a problem in the Western world. Unhappiness is also a problem there. Our societies seem to be rushing to and fro seeking contentment while giving in to every supposed pleasure. The result is what Adam C. Powell Jr. termed “a world of contented bodies and discontented minds.”

Giving in to all our wishes does lead to discontentment in time. Solomon had a thousand wives and did not find one that made him happy (Ecclesiastes 7:28). More is not always better—especially in the areas of food and entertainment.

Contentment includes both a healthy body and a healthy mind. Excess does not lead to happiness. In our search for meaning and joy in life, we can often unwittingly add new troubles. Obesity is often one of our own making. There may be physical reasons and causes, but we should seek help to correct them.

Happiness is a direction we can choose by being “temperate in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:25).

Further Reading:
Keys to a Long, Happy Life

Obstinacy: Not a Virtue

January 14, 2009
Today @ This is the way...

 

Greetings friends,
”Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry,” Samuel said (1 Samuel 15:23).

 

Clyde and Dee Kilough

 

Obstinacy: Not a Virtue

 

Some hold extreme points of view in religion, business or politics. Their points of view, however, in one sense are not as objectionable as the fact that extremists are often unwilling to hear the other side.

 

We all arrive at certain points of view, and the path there may include errors that will be corrected in time. The real problem arises when a person takes a stance so strong that other information is not even considered. Those with new facts or information are viewed as enemies.

 

“A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart” (Proverbs 18:2). Closed-minded arguments are often a mask for foolishness.

 

Further Reading:
Becoming More Like God

 

For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
       and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
       Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
       he has rejected you as king."

1 Samuel 15:23

 

A fool finds no pleasure in understanding
       but delights in airing his own opinions.

Proverbs 18:2

 

Iniquity – great injustice or unfairness

Obstinate – refusing to change your mind or stop what you are doing / hard to deal with

Virtue – behavior showing high moral standards / a good or useful quality

Stance – the way in which someone stands / an attitude or standpoint

Rebellion – an act of rebelling / opposition to authority or control

Divination – the use of supernatural means to find out about the future or the unknown

Arrogance – behaving in an unpleasant way because you think that you are better than other people

Airing – expressing an opinion or complaint publicly

Is Nothing Certain?

January 5, 2009 

Today @ This is the way...

Hello dear readers,

God does not change—all else does.

Clyde and Dee Kilough

Is Nothing Certain?

Life teaches us that everything changes—including ourselves. Our bodies age, ocean waves lap at the shores, forever changing them, and nothing stays exactly the same.

While it’s true that there is no such thing as total security on this earth, Jesus spoke about laying up “treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20). Here we see that the most important treasures lie beyond this world—in perfect security.

When we search for opportunities in this life and grasp those that become available, we place ourselves in a position of security that does not depend on hoarding what we have. But the greatest security of all is to be pleasing to God—for our future depends more on Him than on life itself. Of that we can be certain.

Further Reading:

Financial Security and Peace of Mind